Pennsylvania Focuses on Attracting, Keeping Workers

Revamping government employment practices has been a priority for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Soon after stepping into office in 2023, Shapiro issued an executive order removing four-year college degree requirements from most government jobs.

The commonwealth has launched a variety of efforts to boost recruitment, as it anticipates a wave of retirements. Roughly 29 percent of employees will have clocked in 25 years of work with the commonwealth within the next four years, says Dan Egan, communications director for Pennsylvania’s Office of Administration.

“We have to think about those things and make sure that we continue to have talent coming in to fill those voids,” Egan says.

Pennsylvania is also taking a new look at benefits to boost retention. “We don't want them coming in the door, staying here for two years for experience and heading out the door to somewhere that may have better benefits,” says Neil Weaver, the secretary of administration.

So far, the commonwealth’s efforts have drawn attention: a Forbes-Statista study named the Pennsylvania government as one of the 100 best employers in the state in 2025.

Rethinking Necessary Job Qualifications

Two years ago, Pennsylvania removed four-year college degree requirements from 92 percent of government jobs, widening its applicant pool. The administration also began re-examining the remaining 8 percent of jobs to find where such degrees may be unnecessary.

That change, Weaver says, has “been huge” for helping the commonwealth compete for talent. Previously, many jobseekers would see postings asking for a college degree and would move on without trying their chance at it.

Pennsylvania’s change is part of a growing trend. By February 2025, more than half of states had policies promoting more skill-based hiring, which allows candidates to show their experience and qualifications without the need for specific degrees or titles on their resume. This opens the door to candidates who’ve developed skills through boot camps, certifications, apprenticeships or other approaches.

In another effort to broaden their hiring pool, Pennsylvania lowered the minimum age of a correctional officer to 18, down from 21.

“Folks who are doing these jobs are applying after high school, and we were losing them to other industries and other fields, because they weren't going to sit around and wait for three years to get a job with the state,” Egan says.

As the government looks to fill its ranks faster, it’s also considering whether there are further ways it may be holding out for the “perfect, perfect person” instead of identifying good candidates who could be trained up in-house, Weaver says.

Reducing Time to Hire

Government hiring processes are notoriously lengthy, and people left waiting may move on to other opportunities. That’s especially true for candidates waiting months to hear back about entry-level and lower-level management positions, Weaver says.

But Pennsylvania found ways to trim down its process, reducing its average time-to-hire from 90 days to 54 days.

In part, it removed steps by reducing the role of human resources in evaluating applications for non-civil service roles. Instead, the Office of Administration encourages referring applications directly to the agencies that want new staff, because these agencies have a better sense of what they’re looking for and how fast they need to hire, officials say.

The commonwealth also began doing more phone interviews, rather than waiting for candidates who are traveling to become available for in-person ones. And Pennsylvania started giving conditional job offers sooner, so it could hire employees before their background checks finished or the agency got in touch with their references. And it stopped making references or recommendations mandatory.

“We were waiting too long. … You call and ask for a recommendation, [but] … they may not get back to you for whatever reason,” Weaver says. ”And [now] we’re not even making it a requirement. How many people do you know that really put [down] a recommendation that's going to be bad?”

And today, the commonwealth is doing better at filling roles. The employment vacancy rate declined from 10 percent during the pandemic to 7 percent today.

Emphasizing Reasons to Stay

Officials say they’re also trying to get new hires to stick around longer, in part by showing there are opportunities for career advancement, and by emphasizing the mission of the work.

The team is also providing more tangible offerings, like upgraded benefits. That includes both low-cost improvements, like extending parental leave by an additional two weeks, and pricier updates, like enabling employees to add their family to their medical coverage sooner.